Turbo Or Supercharger?

[magic 0]

I recentlly had a conversation with a friend over which he prefered a turbo or a supercharger.

Now for people who dont know a turbo has lag and the air preasure has to build up where as a supercharger would off a belt therefore there is no lag becuase it is constanly spinning. That is the basics.

What do people think?
also sorry if im a bit vague but im unsure on and unclear on the hole subject aswel.

Thanks

Magic AKA nathan

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magic,
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thanks

[zamaliphe 0]

Supercharger? i thought this is only in need for speed game :)will i don't know really any care that use Supercharger in my placenot even after 5 moor years hop you can explain moor thanks

[Watermonkey 0]

Hope you can learn to use spell check!My limited understanding of this topic is this: (in simple terms)A supercharger uses more energy from the engine resulting in lower MPG and is ultimately the larger air compressor of the two giving you the best 1/4 mile, but that's only for racing, not for everyday driving. Even though GM and others have incorporated this method of air compression in their vehicles from the factory, it doesn't seem to have caught on as turbos have.A turbo charger can be more or less simple depending upon your budget and you can even use two; one with a smaller vane and one with the larger one. The smaller vane will spin up quickly and the driver should realize little if any "turbo lag" while the larger vane will take some time to fully spin up but will be capable of much higher air pressure. There is also the option of the expensive VGT or Variable Geometry Turbine which adjusts the pitch of the blades depending upon RPMs starting small like the first option, then backing off for higher air flow like the second option. (It's the same concept of a variable pitch prop a single engine prop airplane uses; the prop is positioned to cut into the air more aggressively when taking off or when more thrust is needed, and flattens out when higher speeds at cruising altitude are needed.) This is the best of both worlds. While you're just tooling around or idling, these two devises really don't use any extra fuel, thus they are the more fuel efficient of the two methods of compressing air to increase the virtual size of your engine without actually having to stuff an entire 6.8L hemi under the hood. Hope this helps.

Edited December 25, 2007 by Watermonkey (see edit history)

[magic 0]

Thanks for the replies and yes it does help I was unsure about what the difference was but now that you have explained it in a bit more detail i think i understand it a bit better. Thanks and does anyone else have anything they can throw into the pan???ThanksMagic

[silver_wolves 0]

well, it also depends on the car and what your using it for, in my opinion.if you have a tuner car (ie a lancer or 350z or something like that) i would go for the turbo, unless you are racing it for lots of money, then go for the supercharger.if you have a muscle car (ie mustang or camaro) supercharger period.if you have a high-end import, it depends on the use and the kind. turbos are helpful in some ways, while superchargers in others.

[auygjhsagy 0]

Well Probally not Turbo because sometimes it makes u go too fast and your manifold comes off so it would have to be Supercharger.

[sanjiv 0]

mercedes kompressors have superchargers (that is spelt right)i am not really too sure about iti do not know much about them other than turbo causes lag

[chriso_cd 0]

if all your concerned about is power, then a supercharger is the way to go. it has no lag, because it is run off of a belt and there fore directly from the engine.... it will produce something like a 5% or greater increase in the cars power. -- the MAJOR downside of superchargers today is that they slaughter your gas mileage because the engine actually has to work harder to turn the extra belt on start up and when the supercharger isnt in use.if you want the extra power of a supercharger, but not the negative effects on your gas mileage, turbochargers are much better. turbochargers are NOT connected to the engine by a belt to run them... instead, they are looped into the exaust system (usually on top of the header or exaust manifold) and they rely on pressure from the exaust to power them... this means that you have a lag time between start up and when it builds up enough pressure to work... besides this, there are no other negative effects of a turbocharger on an engine unless you consider extra power and speed a negative effect!

[LooneyMS 0]

It really depends. Yes supercharger's give instant boosts, but they tend to put more strain on the motor, which eventually leads to more maintenense for the car than a turbo would. Turbo's are pretty much free power because they are driven by the exhaust. For example, the Evo XIII comes stock with 4G63 turbo. Swapping that with a supercharger wouldn't give as much power as the stock turbo would. Also, it has come to my attention that many imports use turbo's and many of the american muscle cars use supercharger. Muscle cars are good for drag, so having more power for speed would make the car must fast off the snap.

[savge17 0]

A supercharger more or less relies on the engine components to operate such as a belt from the engine, a turbo charger astually usues the engine exhaust to move the fan and compress the air to provide the vehicles with better performance.

Edited May 12, 2008 by savge17 (see edit history)

[Brittney 0]

well a supercharger is a good part and a turbo but a turbo has a loud whistle to it and its a bolt on item so a turbo is like not something i would look for i like superchargers more ;3 to me its more performance and more power

[k_nitin_r 8]

Technically, a turbo charger is a specific form of a super charger, but due to the common usage, the term super charger is no longer the all-encompassing term that the engineers use so when you do hear the term, it is most probably the 'street use' of the term which refers to the belt or chain driven variant.A supercharger is belt or chain driven and that takes power off the engine. However, that is just the negative bit about it. The positive, apart from a quicker effect, is that it can be built cheaper and smaller than a turbo charger because a turbo charger has to be built to withstand the heat from the exhaust. In fact, turbo charges have been known to sustain heat damage from prolonged use.Super chargers and turbo chargers are used in planes too because a high output needs to be delivered from a small engine to maintain the power to weight ratio. The use of a super charger means that the plane's engine would use some of the fuel simply to power the super charger and therefore that results in a lower range from a higher fuel consumption. However, a turbo charger may sustain heat damage while mid-flight and thus results in a lower reliability. The materials with which the turbo chargers are made will not ignite, but you don't want your engine losing power while mid-flight (remember Yogi Bear and the Spruce Goose flying boat where they had to toss off all that gold?).

[Iniyila 2]

turbo lag is the time that is needed for turbo to speedup enough and in many modern cars they reduce lag by some ways like using very light components to build the turbine. anyway turbochargers are only for cars but superchargers are used in aircraft too. i think they are just doing the same work and the only difference is the way that their turbines spin. so what will cause someone to prefer one over another ? a supercharger doesn't have the lag thing but the efficiency of turbocharger is much higher than supercharger. in reliability and tunability supercharger wins. the noise really depends on driver because i love the load noise of supercharger but someone may not. but in the end i will buy a car which has the best price/performance for my budget so none of above is important .

[darko100 1]

I would say supercharger and turbo.They just gave amazing sound. I have Citroen Xsara Turbo Diesel and when you reach 2000rpm it just give amazing sound